The electronic book is of increasing interest to publishers, online book sellers, and others for a variety of reasons not the least of which is increased interest by consumers in electronic versions of books of various types.
It is generally recognized that it is possible to add functionality to electronic books which is not present in traditional books and various attempts have been made to do so. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,516,073 to Kodama describes an electronic book which includes a feature for reading the book aloud and further describes an electronic bookmark feature.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,849,393 to Hendricks et al. describes an electronic book which includes links to other content such as streaming video data, audio data and text to enrich the reading experience.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2002/0188532 to Rothstein describes enhancing an electronic book by adding advertising to the electronic book. Similarly, U.S. Patent Publication No. 2011/0184811 to Patwa et al. describes enhancing an electronic book by adding contextual advertising to the electronic book in which advertising is matched to the content on relevant pages of the electronic book.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2011/0047495 to Hendricks describes enhancing an electronic book by providing features to manipulate text and also provides a picture-in-picture feature.
Yet, problems remain with adding functionality to electronic books which is not present in traditional print books.
One of the problems with the electronic book relates to how to provide an electronic book with additional functionality yet at the same time provide an electronic book in a form which is acceptable to readers who are accustomed to and may prefer the traditional print form.
Another problem is to identify the additional functionality which is possible to implement in an interactive electronic book which would assist in enhancing the experience of readers.
A still further problem is to provide for advertising or marketing in a book in a manner which is unobtrusive to readers.
Various attempts have been made to address these and other problems. Nevertheless, the problems remain.